Active Carbon?

[korrupt]

I added some white spot treatment and it says to remove some active carbon or something to prevent nullifying the treatment

im not sure what it is but i think its in my filter

my filter contains
---------------------------
layer 1a - sponge
layer 1b - black sponge
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layer 2a - sponge
layer 2b - ceramic rocks or something (not sure)
-----------------------------
layer 3a - sponge
layer 3b - bio balls (something like that)
------------------------------
i have a feeling its the ceramic layer so i removed that, am i right?

also i have like this diamond like fish that has a massive growth of white spot, should i try to scrap off that patch because its upside down right now. is it most likely going die?

 

[nmonks]

The black sponge is carbon. And yes, it removes medications.

Here's the best way to use carbon in the aquarium: Get a shovel. Dig a hole in the garden. Insert carbon. Replace soil into hole. Pad down nicely. Pour on liquid cement. Go back inside and replace the space where the carbon was with something more useful, like filter wool.

Carbon really serves no purpose in a properly run freshwater aquarium. It's main job (like tonic salt) is to extract money from unsuspecting fishkeepers in return for a cheap product sold at a wildly inflated price.

Cheers, Neale

 

[korrupt]

The black sponge is carbon. And yes, it removes medications.

Here's the best way to use carbon in the aquarium: Get a shovel. Dig a hole in the garden. Insert carbon. Replace soil into hole. Pad down nicely. Pour on liquid cement. Go back inside and replace the space where the carbon was with something more useful, like filter wool.

Carbon really serves no purpose in a properly run freshwater aquarium. It's main job (like tonic salt) is to extract money from unsuspecting fishkeepers in return for a cheap product sold at a wildly inflated price.

Cheers, Neale

awesome thanks for the heads up on teh scam lol.

 

[raptorrex]

The black sponge is carbon. And yes, it removes medications.

Here's the best way to use carbon in the aquarium: Get a shovel. Dig a hole in the garden. Insert carbon. Replace soil into hole. Pad down nicely. Pour on liquid cement. Go back inside and replace the space where the carbon was with something more useful, like filter wool.

Carbon really serves no purpose in a properly run freshwater aquarium. It's main job (like tonic salt) is to extract money from unsuspecting fishkeepers in return for a cheap product sold at a wildly inflated price.

Cheers, Neale

lol top post

 

[rdd1952]

Make sure you put the ceramic rings back in as that is where a lot of your beneficial bacteria will be. I totally agree with nmonks about the uselessness of carbon but in your case, you will need to use the carbon one more time: to remove the rest of the medication from the water after treatment. You will need a new sponge though as carbon is usually fully saturated in a very short period of time (from a day to a couple weeks) so the one you have is probably no good any more. I would suggest adding another regular sponge (or filter wool as nmonks suggested) in place of the carbon sponge and just adding some regular carbon to one of the baskets when you are finished treating the tank. Leave it a couple days to remove the medication and then take it out and follow nmonks directions.

 

[andywg]

in your case, you will need to use the carbon one more time: to remove the rest of the medication from the water after treatment.

Why?

Why not just water change?

When you have been on medication, do you take a second medication, or supplement, to force the first medication out? No you just let nature take its course.

 

[nmonks]

It depends a lot on the fish being kept. If you have sensitive species like stingrays or clown loaches, it makes sense to use carbon to remove traces of medication before putting them in the tank. This is one of the few cases where carbon can be useful in a *freshwater* aquarium. Though, under normal circumstances, the medication used will be metabolised by the filter bacteria within a few days anyway. As Andy says, couple this with a water change or two, and the concentration of medication left behind will be very small. With some fish, as mentioned, you might not want to take the chance, but for standard tropicals, you can rely on this approach quite safely.

Some marine fishkeepers *do* use carbon alongside other means of removing organic materials (skimmers for example). But I'm not much of an expert with marines so hesitate to comment about how cost effective carbon is when used thus.

Cheers, Neale

 

[rdd1952]

Fortunately, I've never had to use medications but from what I had read on the labels of some products, it said to remove after treatment was complete. I guess water changes will dilute them over time. If that is the case, I stand corrected. Carbon really does have no usefulness.

 

[Fish2u]

I use this instead of carbon ==> http/www.seachem.com/products/product_pages/Purigen.html
This gives amazing water clarity

 

[nmonks]

What's cool about stuff like Purigen is the marketing-speak used to sell it could apply to almost anything. Not saying it doesn't work well, I'm sure it does, but when you come down to it, what's it really doing different?

Purigenâ„¢ controls ammonia, nitrites and nitrates by removing nitrogenous organic waste that would otherwise release these harmful compounds.

An undergravel filter or any other filter removes ammonia and nitrite. As for nitrates, well, water changes do that.

Purigen’s™ impact on trace elements is minimal.

Just like carbon. Not doing something is hardly a selling point. A chunk of granite stuck in a tank won't have an impact on trace elements either.

It significantly raises redox.

Meaning...? How's this helpful in a freshwater tank? I actually happen to know about what reduction/oxidation reactions are, but without a context here I don't see that this quote is terribly informative.

It polishes water to unparalleled clarity.

So does new filter floss.

Purigenâ„¢ darkens progressively as it exhausts, and is easily renewed by treating with bleach.

Well that's nice at least.

Purigenâ„¢ is designed for both marine and freshwater use. This product is sold by volume. Cited weight is minimal weight.

Like gravel then.

Maybe I'm a bit too cynical...

Cheers, Neale

 

[rdd1952]

Purigenâ„¢ controls ammonia, nitrites and nitrates by removing nitrogenous organic waste that would otherwise release these harmful compounds.

This is the part that scares me about Purigen. If it is removing them, how will a tank ever cycle. If it's only neutralizing them, that's one thing but I don't want anything that removes ammonia and nitrite.

 

[Fish2u]

100 years back people used to travel on horseback; now we travel by train/bus/car ... what difference does it make to a cynical? We can still reach our destination no matter whether we used a horse or a BMW
20 years back people used to use sponge filters (still works fine) for aquariums. Why buy a state of the art power filter when a piece of sponge and an air pump can still do the same trick ?

 

[nmonks]

100 years back people used to travel on horseback; now we travel by train/bus/car ... what difference does it make to a cynical? We can still reach our destination no matter whether we used a horse or a BMW

I agree. Sometimes taking a slow steam train ride is more fun that getting somewhere in a fast but dull motor car.

20 years back people used to use sponge filters (still works fine) for aquariums. Why buy a state of the art power filter when a piece of sponge and an air pump can still do the same trick?

Absolutely! Sponge filters are an excellent choice in many aquaria, and have the added advantage of being something baby fish and shrimps can nibble on for food. Undergravel filters remain the best value filters on the market, and nothing even comes close to them in this regard. They're fiddly to maintain and don't work with plants, but that doesn't make them useless.

What's good is we have choices. But not everything new and shiny is better than the old ways of doing things. And sometimes old fashioned solutions can work well, especially if you're on a budget.

Cheers, Neale

 

[Dave Spencer]

I`m not sure how this thread got on to Purigen, but I would like to speak up in it`s favour.

What it does do most effectively is to remove discolouring bodies from the water ie tanins.

I have heavily planted tanks, so the emphasis of my filtration is on mechanical, namely varying grades of sponge, and floss for a final polish. I have always thought my water was as clear as it was ever going to get, then I read an article by Jeff Senske praising it. Having spent a lot of money on an opti white high clarity tank, I thought it would be worth it to give it a try. Needless to say, I now use it on my other tanks as well.

Personally, I am not in to these cure all, answer to all our problems potions knocking about, but I do recommend Purigen to anyone willing to put up with the extra faffing around it causes.

I had a read up on it`s effects on redox values, but lost the will to live, so until I find an idiot`s guide I can`t really comment on this. Any chance of a brief resumee on redox values in the aquarium, Neale? There, now the thread is really going off course.

Dave.

 

[nmonks]

David,

At its simplest "redox" in fishkeeping is just a measurement. Like temperature or pH. You measure it. There are good values and bad values. If it's in the safe zone, you smile, if it isn't, you look for possible problems.

More specifically, redox is short for reduction-oxidation, which describes a certain type of chemical reaction involving the transfer of electrons. What they are doesn't matter here. But in an aquarium, you can measure the capacity for redox reactions to occur by measuring something called ORP or "oxidation reduction potential". This is where the marine fishkeepers get involved, because they use a sensor to measure this number. The value they are looking for is something like (according to Bob Fenner) 350 millivolts.

When the ORP value is above or below this it means something isn't right. Metabolites (i.e., pollution for the fish and inverts) lower the value, so if the ORP is too low, it's an indication that filtration and water changes aren't up to scratch. If the ORP goes too high (e.g., where too much oxygen or ozone is being pumped into the system) the ORP becomes hazardous in and of itself. So just like pH or hardness or anything else, there's a "sweet spot" for your community of animals.

None of this matters in freshwater fishkeeping. I suppose in theory if you were keeping surf-zone Tanganyikan cichlids knowing the redox potential might be helpful, but really, there are much easier and more cost effective ways to measure the health of a freshwater aquarium. But in a marine tank having this constant measurement of the "health" of the water is useful because it gives you a real-time, constant measurement of photosynthesis, pollution, oxygen availability, and so on in the aquarium.

Does that help?

Neale

I had a read up on it`s effects on redox values, but lost the will to live, so until I find an idiot`s guide I can`t really comment on this. Any chance of a brief resumee on redox values in the aquarium, Neale? There, now the thread is really going off course.